In North America the term Indian has an ambiguous meaning. Historically and currently, Indian was and is commonly used to indicate Native American. If a more specific term was or is needed, American Indian and East Indian were and are commonly used. American Indian is still the most common term, although Native American can be used to refer to the Indigenous peoples of North America. East Indian is still in common use. Currently South Asian is often used instead of East Indian. While some consider it derogatory, people of Indian origin use the term Desi to refer to the diasporicsubculture of overseas Indians. The word "desi" means "of the country/homeland" in Hindi and is also used as "countryman" in the U.S..

Population

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Numbers

According to the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, the Asian Indian population in the United States grew from almost 1,679,000 in 2000 to 2,570,000 in 2007: a growth rate of 53%, the highest for any Asian American community, and among the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States. Indian Americans are the third largest Asian American ethnic group, after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.[5][6][7]

Statistics on Indians in the US

The United States holds host to the second largest Indian diaspora on the planet

In the year 2006, of the entire total 1,266,264 legal immigrants to USA from all the countries, 58,072 were from India. Immigration from India is currently at its highest level in history. Between 2000 and 2006 421,006 Indian immigrants were admitted to the United States, up from 352,278 during the 1990-1999 period.[11] According to the US census, the overall growth rate for Indians from 1990 to 2000 was 105.87 per cent. The average growth rate for the whole of USA was only 7.6 per cent.

Indians comprise 16.4 percent of the Asian-American community. They are the third largest in the Asian American population. In 2000, of all the foreign born population in USA, Indians were 1.007 million. From 2000 onwards the growth rate and the per cent rate of Indians amongst all the immigrants has increased by over 100 percent. According to the US Census Bureau, between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in the US grew 130% - 10 times the national average of 13%.

A joint Duke University - UC Berkeley study revealed that Indian immigrants have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005 than immigrants from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan combined.[12] A University of California, Berkeley, study reported that one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of valley hi-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs.

Indians along with other Asians, have one of the highest educational qualifications of all ethnic groups in the US. Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor’s or high degree (compared to 28% nationally and 44% average for all Asian American groups). Almost 40% of all Indians in the United States have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. Source: The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.[13] Thomas Friedman, in his recent book, The World is Flat, explains this trend in terms of brain drain, whereby the best and brightest elements in India emigrate to the US in order to seek better financial opportunities.[14]

Socioeconomic

Education

Indian Americans have the highest percentage of higher education when compared to other racial groups. According to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, there are close to 35,000 Indian American doctors[15]. According to the 2000 census, about 64% of Indian Americans have attained a Bachelor's degree or more.[4](compared to 28% nationally, and 44% average for all Asian American groups). Almost 40% of all Indians have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. (Source: The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.) Among Indian Americans, 72.3% participate in the U.S. work force, of which 57.7% are employed in managerial and professional specialties.[16]

Economics

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Indian American men had "the highest year-round, full-time median earnings ($51,094)", while Indian American women had a medium income of $35,173.[17] This phenomenon has been linked to the "brain drain" of the Indian intelligentsia from India (source: Journal of Political Economy - University of Chicago Press). Recently, however, there has been a drop in immigration of Indians from India to the United States. This is generally attributed to the improving economy of India. A large group of Indian Americans are presently second or third generation.

Indian Americans own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the United States, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion. (Source: Little India Magazine). In 2002, there were over 223,000 Asian Indian-owned firms in the U.S., employing more than 610,000 workers, and generating more than $88 billion in revenue.[18]

Many metropolitan areas with high Indian-American populations now have movie theatres specialized for showing Indian movies specializing Bollywood. Silicon Valley, for example has two such multiplexes: one in Fremont and one in San Jose.

The Dallas - Ft. Worth Metroplex has a "Desi" Multiplex in the Richardson township. The area also has a movie theatre that plays Indian movies, FunAsia. In 2006, the first 24 x 7 Desi F.M. station in North America was launched, Radio Salaam Namaste 104.9 FM, in the Dallas area. A similar multiplex, featuring Indian film exclusively on two screens (and other international films on four additional screens) opened in 2002 in Cary, N.C.. FunAsia owns all Desi multiplexes in the state of Texas including two(six and five screens) in Houston. (www.funasia.net)

In July 2005, MTV premiered a spin-off network called MTV Desi which targets Indian Americans.[21] It has been discontinued by MTV.

Indian Muslims generally congregate with other American Muslims, including those from Pakistan, but there are prominent organizations such as the Indian Muslim Council - USA.[24] A large percentage of American Muslims are of Indian origin. The large Parsi community is represented by the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America.[25]Indian Jews are perhaps the smallest organized religious group among Indian Americans, consisting of approximately 350 members in the United States. They form the Indian Jewish Congregation of USA with headquarters in New York.[26]

Ethnicity

Like the terms "Asian American" or "South Asian American", the term "Indian American" is also an umbrella label applying to a variety of views, values, lifestyles, and appearances. Although Asian-Indian Americans retain a high ethnic identity, they are known to assimilate into American culture while at the same time keeping the culture of their ancestors.[30] They may assimilate more easily than many other immigrant groups because they have fewer language barriers (English is widely spoken in India among professional classes), more educational credentials (Indian immigrants are disproportionately well-educated), and come from a democratic society. Additionally, Indian culture, like many other Asian cultures, puts emphasis upon achievement and personality responsibility of the individual as a reflection upon the family and community.

In countries such as the United States, Canada, and Britain, there has been a large influx of Indian immigrants, beginning in the late 1960s-70's. As a result of assimilation, mixed European/White, and Indian backgrounds are becoming more prevalent. In the 2001 U.S. Census Bureau’s publication of the 56,497,000 married couples, it shows that Indian males married almost twice as much with White females (7.1%) than Indian females marrying with White males(3.7%)[31].

1899-1914: First significant wave of Indian immigrants, mostly Sikh farmers and laborers form Punjab region of British India, start arriving in California (Angel Island) on ships via Hong Kong. They find employment on farms and in lumber mills in California, Oregon and Washington states.

1913: A.K. Mozumdar became the first Indian-born person to earn U.S. citizenship, having convinced the Spokane district judge that he was “Caucasian” and met the requirements of naturalization law that restricted citizenship to free white persons. In 1923, as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that no person of East Indian origin could become a naturalized American citizen, his citizenship was revoked.

1917: The Barred Zone Act passes in Congress through two-thirds majority, overriding President Woodrow Wilson's earlier veto. Asians, including Indians, are barred from immigrating to the U.S.

1918: Bhagat Singh Thind becomes the first person of East-Indian descent recruited by US Army on July 22, 1918. He goes on to fight in World War I. A few months later, on November 8, 1918, Bhagat Singh was promoted to the rank of an Acting Sergeant.

1965: President Lyndon Johnson signs the INS Act of 1965 into law, eliminating per-country immigration quotas and introducing immigration on the basis of professional experience and education.Dr.Satinder Mullick,Ph.d.Johns Hopkins Univ., of Corning Glass Works is one of the first to receive the immigration in Nov.1965-sponsored by Corning Glass WorksCorning Inc. under the INS Act of 1965.

1981: Suhas Patil co-founded Cirrus Logic, one of the first fabless semiconductor companies.

2007: Bobby Jindal is elected governor of Louisiana and is the first person of Indian descent to be elected governor of an American state; he is inaugurated on January 14, 2008. He is presently and historically the highest ranking Indian American in a United States government.

2008: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appoints Neel Kashkari as the Interim U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability.

2008: Raj Chetty appointed as professor of economics at Harvard University. As of today, he is the youngest person 'at the age of 29' to ever receive tenure of professorship in the Department of Economics at Harvard. He is one of the top 8 young economists in the world.

In previous decades, Indian Americans were also variously classified as White American, the "Hindu race", and Other.[36] Even today, where individual Indian Americans do not racially self-identify, and instead report Muslim (or a sect of Islam such as Shi'ite or Sunni), Jewish, and Zoroastrian as their "race" in the "Some other race" section without noting their country of origin, they are automatically tallied as white.[37] This may result in the counting of persons such as Indian Muslims, Indian Jews, and Indian Zoroastrians as white, if they solely report their religious heritage without their national origin.

Current social issues

Discrimination

Explicit discrimination is not widespread, but has been known to happen in certain instances. In the 1980s, a faction group known as the Dotbusters tried to intimidate Indian Americans in Jersey City, New Jersey.[citation needed] Studies of racial discrimination, as well as stereotyping and scapegoating of Indian Americans have been conducted in recent years.[38] In particular, racial discrimination of Indian Americans in the workplace has been correlated with Indophobia due to the rise in outsourcing/offshoring paranoia, whereby Indian Americans are blamed for US companies offshoring white-collar labor to India.[39][40] According to the offices of the Congressional Caucus on India, many Indian Americans are severely concerned of a backlash, though nothing serious has taken place yet.[40] Due to various socio-cultural reasons, implicit racial discrimination against Indian Americans largely go unreported by the Indian American community.[38]

Numerous cases of religious stereotyping of American Hindus (mainly of Indian origin) have also been documented.[41]

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, there have been scattered incidents of Indian Americans becoming mistaken targets for hate crimes. In one example, a Sikh, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was murdered at a Phoenix gas station by a white supremacist. This happened after September 11, and the murderer claimed that his turban made him think that the victim was a Middle Eastern American. In another example, a pizza deliverer was mugged and beaten in Massachusetts for "being Muslim" though the victim pleaded with the assailants that he was in fact Hindu.[42]

On April 5, 2006, the Hindu Mandir of Minnesota was vandalized allegedly on the basis of religious discrimination[citation needed]. The vandals damaged temple property leading to $200,000 worth of damage.[43][44][45]

On August 11, 2006, Senator George Allen allegedly referred to an opponent's political staffer of Indian ancestry as "macaca" and commenting, "Welcome to America." Some members of the Indian American community saw Allen's comments, and the backlash that may have contributed to Allen losing his re-election bid, as demonstrative of the power of YouTube in the 21st century.[46]

The number of racially-motivated murders of Indian American students has also increased. Of significance is the December 14, 2007 killing of two Indian Ph.D. students at Louisiana State University. The motive behind the killings is unknown; nothing was stolen however, and the murders occurred near the officers of then Governor-elect Bobby Jindal, an Indian American himself, raising concerns of a racially-motivated killing, later investigated by the Embassy of India in Washington.[47][48] In another incident that took place on January 18, 2008, second-year student Abhijit Mahato was murdered at Duke University. The motives were again unknown.[49][50]

Immigration

Indians are among the largest ethnic groups legally immigrating to the United States. The immigration of Indian Americans has taken place in several waves since the first Indian American came to the United States in the 1700s. A major wave of immigration to California from the region of Punjab took place in the first decade of the 20th century. Another significant wave followed in the 1950s which mainly included students and professionals. The elimination of immigration quotas in 1965 spurred successively larger waves of immigrants in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With the technology boom of the 1990s, the largest influx of Indians arrived between 1995 and 2000. This latter group has also caused surge in the application for various immigration benefits including applications for green card. This has resulted in long waiting periods for people born in India from receiving these benefits.

Media

Politics

Several groups have tried to create a unified or dominant voice for the Indian American community in political affairs, including US India PAC.[51] Additionally, there are also industry-wide Indian American groupings including the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin. A majority of Indian Americans tend to identify as moderates and have voted for Democrats in recent elections. Polls before the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election showed Indian Americans favoring Democratic candidate John Kerry over Republican George W. Bush by a 53% to 14% margin, with 30% undecided at the time.[52] The Republican party has tried to target this community,[53] and several prominent conservative activists are of Indian origin.

In 2007, Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal became the first United States Governor of Indian descent when he was elected Governor of Louisiana and is cited as a leading GOP presidential contender in 2012 or 2016.[54][55]Nimrata Haley is a leading Republican Gubernatorial Candidate in South Carolina and has been endorsed by former Governor Mitt Romney.[56]

Indian American voters have shown support for both the Democratic and Republican parties and have had political candidates of both parties. A list of notable Indian American politicians and commentators can be found here.